Experiences with Sense & Sensibility

Chan Chich Archeology Season, When Skygazing Is Also At A Premium

Today and tomorrow we are finalizing preparation for receiving a nearly full house of archeologists, who will be at Chan Chich Lodge for the next couple months. I came across the photo above at the same time I was looking at the to-do list related to their arrival, and am remembering that in May 2016 I was struck by the quality of night sky at Chan Chich for stargazing.

So this is a shout out to all those people who are intrigued by Mayan archeology, are stargazers, and have not yet made vacation plans for the next couple months. We have a few rooms available, so come on over! The photo above is paid content from Intel, and while usually we avoid passing along commercials, this is on a topic we care about. It is worthy of a read. Also, after the text the Skyglow short on Vimeo is worth a look:

Timelapse photographers zigzagged 150,000 miles across the U.S. to capture the wonders of the dark skies and raise awareness about the growing threat of light pollution.

Their family and friends think they’re crazy for devoting so many nights to create Skyglow, a book and video born from Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinovic’s passion for nature and photography. Just how Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking brought deeper understanding of the cosmos, Heffernan and Mehmedinovic are raising awareness about the damage caused by ever increasing light pollution. Their magical timelapse photography just might do the trick.

Light pollution, also known as skyglow, may not appear to be the most urgent problem facing the planet, but according to Heffernan, Mehmedinovic and others in the dark sky movement, it may be the most indicative of humanity’s growing separation from nature.

Driven by data warning that 80 percent of the world dwells below light-polluted skies — some scientists say it’s causing profound biological damage to many living things on Earth — the two photographers devoted three years of their lives to the Skyglow project. A successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015 helped them raise enough funds to travel 150,000 miles across the U.S., exploring remote and exotic locations under dark skies.

They traveled from the deserts of Arizona to the heights of Hawaii and dozens of places between and beyond. They captured 3 million images of starry night skies, driven by the fear that the twinkling constellations and swirling arms of the Milky Way could soon disappear from view, obfuscated by intensifying electrical light emanating from Earth.

“We lived on very little sleep, lots of energy drinks and some frustrations along the way, but the magic of these locations always made each trip worthwhile,” said Heffernan, describing his nocturnal travels with Mehmedinovic.